1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to element grouping methods for the Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis and computer-readable storage media, and more particularly to an element grouping method for grouping elements such as glass, plastic and ceramic when carrying out the FEM analysis, and to a computer-readable storage medium which stores a program for causing a computer to execute such an element grouping method.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, when designing an electronic apparatus by Computer Aided Design (CAD), the FEM analysis is used. An analyzing model that is created by the FEM analysis is subjected to various tests and evaluations. For example, the evaluation of the strength of the electronic apparatus is one of such evaluations.
When evaluating the strength of a housing of the electronic apparatus, for example, a break test is carried out with respect to each portion of the housing by simulation. In this case, it is necessary to judge whether or not a break occurs in the elements forming the analyzing model under predetermined conditions. When judging whether or not the break occurs in the elements made of a breakable material such as glass, plastic and ceramic, a threshold value that is used as a reference in judging the break takes a different value between an edge portion and a surface portion which is other than the edge portion. For this reason, glass elements, for example, need to be grouped into the edge elements forming the edge portion of the analyzing model, and in-plane elements forming the surface portion other than the edge portion of the analyzing model. The judgement to determine whether a break occurs is made separately with respect to the group of edge elements and the group of in-plane elements. In the case of the conventional CAD using the FEM analysis, a user manually groups the glass elements of the analyzing model into the edge elements and the in-plane elements, in order to evaluate the break in the portion of the analyzing model made of glass.
Because the conventional CAD using the FEM analysis requires the user to manually group the glass elements of the analyzing model into the edge elements and the in-plane elements, the grouping process is troublesome to perform and the load on the user is large. In addition, because the grouping process is performed manually by the user, an erroneous grouping process may be perform if the user makes an erroneous operation or makes an erroneous judgement. Furthermore, the user must manually perform a similar grouping process every time the analyzing element (or part size or element size) changes, and it is difficult to improve the efficiency of the grouping process.
Therefore, in the conventional CAD using the FEM analysis, there was a problem in that it is difficult to perform the grouping process, which groups the glass elements of the analyzing model into the edge elements and the in-plane elements, for example, by reducing the load on the user and efficiently and accurately performing the grouping process.